Information

GENERAL INFORMATION RELATING TO THE USE OF THIS WEBSITE

KIWITREES

Those who have been using this website since its inception, over fifteen years ago, and following its evolution over the years, may remember that it was originally based upon what was at the time a revolutionary new open-source software package known as PhpGedView (or PGV). Until that time, the vast majority of websites on the Internet had been created using basic HTML computer language and very few had yet evolved to take advantage of what was still a new and evolving server-side scripting language known as PHP. In doing so, PGV not only leaped ahead of all existing genealogy programs and website-generation tools, it also offered function and flexibility that was seen in few leading commercial websites at the time. The brains behind PGV was a university lecturer by the name of John Finlay, and I was fortunate in having one of the early PGV websites which were hosted by John on his own server, the great advantage of this being that not only did John maintain the underlying software at the latest level but he was also sure to tune the server to provide optimum performance for websites using his PGV code. Sadly, this was not to last, as John reached the stage at which running a website hosting service was taking more of his time than he could devote to it, so he sold his hosting business, and I was back to maintaining my own site software! More important, though, was the fact that the new operator quickly expanded its offering to include much more than just hosting PGV websites, so the PGV-favoured server tuning that John Finlay had been doing was no longer there and the site started to experience occasional performance and availability problems.

The next step in the evolution, following concerns about future PGV development plans, was the decision by a number of the PGV developers to break away, to form a new team and set about a different development direction for the software package. This PGV-derivative was named webtrees, and as I agreed with the aims of new development team, I chose to adopt webtrees for this site in place of PGV, and continued to use webtrees until March 2015. By that time, I had established a good relationship with, and a great deal of respect for, one of the key members of the webtrees team - Nigel Osborne, living in New Zealand. Nigel had his own ideas about how webtrees should evolve, and finally he decided to branch out on his own to develop a further derivative of the software and concept - which he named kiwitrees. In March 2015, I adopted kiwitrees for this site and have upgraded it regularly since, to keep abreast of Nigel's developments.

Now, the lastest stage in the evolution has arrived, and in one important respect it takes this site in a full circle to the situation it was in 15 years ago! Because, apart from being the brains behind the kiwitrees software, Nigel also offers a website hosting service, exclusively for websites using kiwitrees software. And just as John Finlay did for PGV sites that he hosted, Nigel ensures that all websites on his server are using the latest level of software, that any problems are fixed without the site owner being involved, and that the server is optimally tuned for running kiwitrees. I'm pleased to announce that this website is now running under the care of Nigel's kiwitrees hosting service. I can confidently predict that you will experience the benefits ... and if you have problems, now you know who to blame!!

NEW STRUCTURE

Early in the life of this website, I introduced narrative material relating to some aspects of the Family History, in order to enhance and expand upon the basic facts held in the database. This was material I had prepared to describe the results of my early research - into my direct Davies, Powell and Brough ancestral lines in particular - in order to produce a hardcopy document which I distributed to cousins with my Christmas mail in 2002. I turned the content of that document into a number of pages which I attached somewhat crudely to the 'front-end' of the website, and in time it was my intention to expand upon it, not only to cover the Prentice line, which was the only one of my four personal ancestral lines (those of both of my father's and mother's parents) not mentioned, but also to broaden the scope, particularly of the Davies and Powell families and numerous other families with which they intermarried, in order to cover branches from which a number of cousins and regular users of this site are descended. Like so many good intentions this has not yet really come to fruition! However I have finally made a start!

In preparing the site for the transfer to the kiwitrees hosting service, I discussed with Nigel how we should handle this 'front-end' narrative material, which technically didn't fit very neatly, so that I could continue to maintain it directly - that is to say so that I could eventually do what I had planned to do with it all those years ago! He advised me to transfer it into a new structure, using features of kiwitrees that he had introduced with just this type of need in mind, and with his help I have just completed that restructuring exercise. Although there is plenty of change under the covers, there is one main visible change:

The five navigation buttons, which previously appeared in the centre of the Home Page, have disappeared. Instead, access to existing narrative material and to the new sections that I shall be adding shortly, is from a new icon named 'The Ancestors' in the main menu bar at the top of every page.

On a separate page of this same new structure - the page you are viewing now - I have grouped a number of General Information items, including this What's New? section, which, as the name suggests, will be updated regularly to inform you of important new content and kiwitrees developments.

NEW CONTENT

New content has been added to the Davies Family History narrative - extending forward in time to cover our grandparents' abortive farming venture in Canada (see 'Attempted Emigration'), their return to UK and move to Bristol. I have also added a brief reference to the newly-found Davies branch in ... Sicily! I have written to several cousins asking for - and, I'm pleased to say, gained their agreement to produce - input that will allow me to expand these family narratives further.

At an individual level, I plan to expand the use of the kiwitrees 'Stories' feature, to add narrative material that can be accessed via a 'Stories' tab on the individual page. You can see the first examples which I have added for my father, Jenkin Davies, and his eldest brother William Powell Davies. Much more of this type to follow. And, let's make this a joint effort - if anyone reading this has suggestions, or proposed content, please let me have them.

27 September 2018 The National Library of Wales has just announced their recent purchase of some early War Poems, personal war diary and a number of other manuscripts of our fourth cousin, famous War Poet (Philip) Edward Thomas. See under 'Manuscripts' on his individual page